South Georgia – kings, furs, whales, icebergs & wind!

Feb 6 St Andrews Bay: 54o26'S/036o10'W
Feb 6 Grytviken: 54o17'S/036o30'W

Yesterday we woke at 5am soon after anchoring in St Andrew’s Bay – a wide open expanse of beach where King penguins swim and surf, Fur seals play in the water and Elephant seals lie around burping and grunting.

The cloud was low, and the temperature a reasonable 2 celsius. This morning I was in the zodiac “cruise” group. We meandered around the bottom of the cliffs that lined the Bay, and then watched the penguins and seals along the beach. We knew that the real opportunities would come when we landed!

Following breakfast we were back on the zodiacs heading to the shore. The sun was coming out and the clouds were lifting, revealing large snow-capped mountains, a glacier and a glacial river filled with water and lined with King penguins!

Our walking route took us along a dune above the beach, and then beside the river towards a lake fed by the glacial melt. There were penguins everywhere I turned – I think the number is 150,000 pairs.

In among the penguins were Fur seals ranging from young pups to “adolescents” and older females. The babies were cute and fun, playing at mock “charges” towards me – as soon as I looked at them & growled a little, they retreated. The adolescents were not so easily dissuaded – it often took assistance from others alongside me to keep them at bay.

The small, but fast flowing river was lined with penguins standing in the water on each side. They do this to cool on warm days, and since many were moulting, this also enables them to take a drink from time to time. One penguin was standing on a rock in the middle of the river, looking upstream. He was still there 30 minutes later – I dubbed him the “King of the river who controls the flow of water.” It was a magical visit.

In the afternoon we visited Grytviken, the town that houses the Government of South Georgia, and an old whaling station. Shackleton’s grave is a short walk from the "centre." We spent a couple of hours looking around the very small town (pop 20-30) and raising a glass of whiskey to “The Boss,” Ernest Shackleton.

Then back to the Ocean Diamond and in bed by about 10pm ahead of tomorrow's 5am wake-up call.

Today has been very varied. Our early start in Gold Harbour was lots of fun – here the King Penguins are nesting and raising lots of chicks. I managed to see some eggs on the feet of the parent, much like Emperor penguins do. And I also saw a newly hatched chick peeking out from under the fold of fur and being fed by its parent.

On the way back to our landing, two Elephant seals decided to have a bit of an argument – they are huge and very, very noisy. But once the short stoush had finished, they went back to lying on the beach alongside each other, just like good friends.

Once everyone was back on the boat we were off to sea, heading south to the Drygalski Fjord. Along the way we detoured to check out whale blows - Humpbacks - and beautiful icebergs.

As we turned into the Fjord, the wind started to increase – substantially. It was funnelling down the Fjord and at times was hitting 40-50 knots on our bow. But it was worth every minute, although I’m still not sure if I have any photos that show the extreme beauty. Giant snow-capped mountains line the Fjord – small glaciers feed streams into the water. The water is an almost tropical aquamarine colour.

As we moved further in, the wind-speed continued to increase – we saw lots of birds and Fur seals, and I secretly hoped for at least one of the glaciers to calve into the water.

We finally reached the glacier at the end of the Fjord – amazing, and quite narrow. As I go downstairs to get another layer, I feel the ship turning, I assume to help us go out bow first. But no, the Captain has decided to use the wind! He puts the boat across the Fjord, perpendicular to the wind – the wind pushes us out, the Captain controlling our direction with stabilisers and the engines! It is quite a site.

We have now gone north again, towards another bay that will provide us with a comfortable sleep. The wind is still blowing outside, and the sail up to this place was rather interesting with the ship on a significant lean away from the wind!

It’s bedtime now – we have one more day in South Georgia, then it's west/south west to the Antarctic!